# phpman > man > UNICODE_START(1)

[UNICODE_START(1)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/UNICODESTART/1/markdown)                       General Commands Manual                      [UNICODE_START(1)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/UNICODESTART/1/markdown)



## NAME
       unicode_start - put keyboard and console in unicode mode

## SYNOPSIS
       **unicode**___**start** [_font_ [_umap_]]

## DESCRIPTION
       The **unicode**___**start** command will put the keyboard and console into Unicode (UTF-8) mode.

       For  the  keyboard this means that one can attach 16-bit U+xxxx values to keyboard keys using
       [**loadkeys**(1)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/loadkeys/1/markdown), and have these appear as UTF-8 input to user programs.  Also, that one can  type
       hexadecimal Alt-xxxx using the numeric keypad, and again produce UTF-8.

       For  the console this means that the kernel expects UTF-8 output from user programs, and dis‐
       plays the output accordingly.

       The parameter _font_ is a font that is loaded. It should have a built-in Unicode map, or, if it
       hasn't,  such a map can be given explicitly as second parameter.  When no font was specified,
       the current font is kept.

## NOTE
       Unicode mode is a parameter with a value per virtual console.  However, usually the font  and
       keymap is common to all consoles.

## SEE ALSO
       [**dumpkeys**(1)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/dumpkeys/1/markdown), **kbd**___**[mode**(1)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/mode/1/markdown), [**loadkeys**(1)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/loadkeys/1/markdown), **unicode**___**[stop**(1)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/stop/1/markdown), [**utf-8**(7)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/utf-8/7/markdown), [**setfont**(8)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/setfont/8/markdown)



kbd                                          3 Feb 2001                             [UNICODE_START(1)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/UNICODESTART/1/markdown)